New Campus Network Construction Project of a University – Switch Deployment Planning

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After determining AP installation locations and wired/fiber access points on each floor of all functional buildings, the port counts (electrical ports and optical ports) and deployment positions of access layer switches shall be defined according to the quantity of APs / wired/fiber access points and the length of network cables.

Buildings such as canteens, auditoriums, gymnasiums, natatoriums and libraries feature large open spaces with a moderate number of widely scattered APs and wired/fiber access points. To guarantee stable and reliable PoE power supply, the cable length from each access switch to connected APs must be controlled within 90 meters with high-quality Ethernet cables adopted. Considering all above factors, multiple access switch installation points are required on each floor of these buildings, and such points shall be arranged alongside fiber routing paths as much as possible. Each access switch deployed here is configured with 8 electrical ports + 2×10GE optical ports.

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Student dormitories are equipped with densely deployed APs, plus 28 IP phones to be connected on every floor. Therefore, one access switch installation point is arranged per floor, with each access switch featuring 48 electrical ports + 2×10GE optical ports.

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Teaching buildings have dense AP layout and 12 teaching PCs to be accessed on each floor. One access switch installation point is deployed on each floor, and each access switch is equipped with 24 electrical ports + 2×10GE optical ports.

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The stadium has a small number of APs and wired/fiber access points, so only one access switch installation point is set at the podium, with the access switch configured with 16 electrical ports + 2×10GE optical ports.

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Once the location, port count and model of access switches at each installation point inside all functional buildings are finalized, aggregation switch sites are deployed in buildings located at fiber convergence nodes along fiber routes. One pair of aggregation switch sites is arranged separately for the teaching zone, student living zone and faculty residential zone.

Access switches inside each functional building form one or multiple independent access rings, and each access ring contains no more than 6 access switches to reduce network latency. There are 26 access rings in the teaching zone, 19 in the student living zone and 34 in the faculty residential zone.

Aggregation switches in the teaching zone and faculty residential zone: 48×10GE optical ports + 6×100GE optical ports
Aggregation switches in the student living zone: 24×10GE optical ports + 6×100GE optical ports

One pair of core layer switches is deployed in the central equipment room of the Computer Science Department, each equipped with 24×100GE optical ports.

The following devices are also deployed in the Computer Science central equipment room:

6 pairs of Wireless Access Controllers (ACs): 2 pairs for each zone, with each pair managing up to 512 APs
1 IP PBX: supports a maximum of 10,000 IP phone subscribers
2 pairs of firewalls: One pair (4×100GE optical ports) dedicated to traffic cleaning; One pair (8 GE combo ports + 4 GE electrical ports + 4 GE optical ports + 6×10GE optical ports) providing security protection for all service servers
Various service servers including DNS, DHCP and Radius servers

After the above deployment planning and equipment configuration are approved by the leaders of the university construction department, detailed campus network design and equipment procurement can be initiated. Civil and network construction work will commence once all equipment arrives on site.

By Lanbras

Lanbras specializes in translating cutting-edge optical and Ethernet transmission technologies into clear, valuable insights that help our customers stay ahead in a fast-evolving digital world.

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